Car hit me from behind. He said it was my fault

Mickey666

It's difficult to envisage a situation where driving in to the rear of another vehicle can be the fault of the driver in front.

Clive_Woody

Mickey666 said:

It's difficult to envisage a situation where driving in to the rear of another vehicle can be the fault of the driver in front.

Have you not read about the crash for cash scams? Apparently removing bulbs from brake lights is a common part of this along with random emergency stops.

Grumpy_chap

Clive_Woody said:

Mickey666 said:

It's difficult to envisage a situation where driving in to the rear of another vehicle can be the fault of the driver in front.

Have you not read about the crash for cash scams? Apparently removing bulbs from brake lights is a common part of this along with random emergency stops.

Those scams only work because the person behind is always liable irrespective of contributory action by the person Infront.  

Sandtree

Mickey666 said:

It's difficult to envisage a situation where driving in to the rear of another vehicle can be the fault of the driver in front.

Namely when the car in front is reversing at the same time

Supersonos

ritesh said:

There is a natural tendency to look right as you approach a roundabout to see if it is clear. 

I will never understand why people do this. 

Wait for your path to be clear then check to see if there's any oncoming traffic.  Rushing and looking for gaps before your "turn" is just asking for trouble.

Aretnap

Mickey666 said:

It's difficult to envisage a situation where driving in to the rear of another vehicle can be the fault of the driver in front.

They exist. In one well reported case a driver responded to being tailgated by slamming his brakes on for no good reason. The Court of Appeal decided that they were both to blame for the resulting collision, and split liability 60/40.

https://www.casecheck.co.uk/ali-v-d-brass-ca-23-11-11.html

It's unusual though and requires some pretty bad driving by the person in front. In this case, braking because the lights have changed ahead is nothing like braking because you want to teach the guy behind you a lesson, and is extremely unlikely to add up to any blame on the OP's part. 

BOWFER

Whilst it would appear to be the case here, this mindset that it's 'always' the person behind's fault is exactly how those fake accident people make their money.

neilmcl

AdrianC said:

neilmcl said:

Even though you contributed to the accident by your own poor observation and late braking

Eh?

Green - prepare to stop.
Amber - stop, unless it's not safe to do so.

The OP did exactly what they should have done - stopped when the lights went from green to amber.

It's not their fault the driver behind wasn't looking where they were going.

The OP had to slam the anchors on as the lights changed which suggests they weren't prepared to stop nor was it safe to do so. They may have not been fully at fault but it doesn't take away from the fact that it was pretty poor driving.

BOWFER

neilmcl said:

AdrianC said:

neilmcl said:

Even though you contributed to the accident by your own poor observation and late braking

Eh?

Green - prepare to stop.
Amber - stop, unless it's not safe to do so.

The OP did exactly what they should have done - stopped when the lights went from green to amber.

It's not their fault the driver behind wasn't looking where they were going.

The OP had to slam the anchors on as the lights changed which suggests they weren't prepared to stop nor was it safe to do so. They may have not been fully at fault but it doesn't take away from the fact that it was pretty poor driving.

I agree that there are scenarios where mindlessly slamming on the brakes with no regard to what's behind you is mental.

Supersonos

BOWFER said:

neilmcl said:

AdrianC said:

neilmcl said:

Even though you contributed to the accident by your own poor observation and late braking

Eh?

Green - prepare to stop.
Amber - stop, unless it's not safe to do so.

The OP did exactly what they should have done - stopped when the lights went from green to amber.

It's not their fault the driver behind wasn't looking where they were going.

The OP had to slam the anchors on as the lights changed which suggests they weren't prepared to stop nor was it safe to do so. They may have not been fully at fault but it doesn't take away from the fact that it was pretty poor driving.

I agree that there are scenarios where mindlessly slamming on the brakes with no regard to what's behind you is mental.

But the person behind should have left enough space for them to be able to stop in time if the driver did something like slam their brakes on.

Or, at least, that's how I drive - assuming every other person on the road is an idiot.

I think watching 20mins of dashcam videos should be part of the driving test.  It'll teach you that a) anything can happen, b) when something does happen it happens very suddenly and c) it's amazing how badly some people drive.